Windshield Skin.

Unrolled and Ready.

Finished!

Ordered the precut 6 mm Windshield Skin for the Grenny. Application was more or less straight forward, with one hiccup. Prepped windshield by claybarring, scrubbing with included pad, and then several squeegeeing passes. Wife helped remove backing of Skin and helped position it on windshield. Mahalos! And then squeegee’d the bubbles out. Lots of home made slip solution used (2 tsp baby shampoo and filtered water) Turns out the precut was too wide and overhung over windshield edges. Then due to gravity, the Skin sank low in the middle of the glass and overhung there by a few mm. That was frustrating, but got a nice sharp razor and hand scored all three edges. Don’t look too close, cause it’s wazy as heck, but the job is done. Hope it works!

Update: Received $41 dollars refund for cut size issue!

Pan American DC-3.

An excellent build with my son. Retractable landing gear, removable roof to see passenger seats, and free spinning propellers make this kit stand out. Speaking of stand, the included stand displays the DC-3 at a beautiful take off angle. Highly recommended, just like the Concorde!

Ineos Grenadier.

2026 Ineos Grenadier Trialmaster

Traded CRV. Will miss you,buddy! It was a bitter sweet good-bye. Thanks to bro for coming along and taking pictures!

Sterling silver exterior paint with black steel wheels contrasts well! Black step bars were added on and really makes ingress and egress easier. Also adds a little more ruggedness to the look.

Not too sure about the snorkel, but that can be a future diy delete project in the future. 😎

It’s a beast! 

Big Horn Is Back.

 

Easy Assembly Second Time Around!

Quickly ordered a replacement Big Horn 49, but in red livery per my son’s request. Equipting with RadioMaster ELRS 8 channel receiver this time. Fingers and other appendages crossed!

Flight Log: 8-30-26. Big Horn, Big Splat.

RIP. It Was A Short, Sweet 2 Months of Life.

Four flights today with a tough ending to the morning. Flight lessons with my 10 year old son are going well. Left turns are nice and gentle with little loss of altitude. Right turns are little too banked but still good. Fourth flight started uneventful and actually really good. Son was able to turn left and right and progressing with being able to bring the plane back to us. Lots of cross winds. I'd guess gusts up to 10 mpg which didn't make learning any easier. Then it all went spiraling down, literally. He was doing a nice left turn when he said it wasn't responding. I took off the buddy switch and sure enough, no response. No control inputs registered as we watched it descend circle to it's demise. Seemed like I had a touch of throttle response as it was able to do one more circle before obliteration. 

We guess a brown out. However, all inputs worked when we tried to diagnose issue at home. Complete loss. In any case, I'll hold off with 4 in 1 modulations with the RadioMaster and try ELRS now. Will likely order a replacement soon! Got to get back on the saddle quickly. 

Note: Yellow Avanti handed off to new owner, my Dad 😃. Red Avanti V2 in the works!

Flight Log: 8-2-26.

 

The Duo For The Day.

A nice day flying with Dad, bro, nephews and son! Six flights total. Four on the Big Horn (three training flights with son) and two flights with the Avanti S. First flight in roughly 6 years! Flew well with ample power and fast straight lines. First flight was in perfect wind conditions and the second flight had a good amount of cross winds. Got it down in one piece though! Son is progressing with unassisted full turns. Favors left turns and circles over right. Getting better and better with each outing! Really enjoyed flying with three generations! Nephews showing progress as well. Dad and bro fly awesome as usual. Good times.

Big Horn notes: 

• Knife edge mix programmed with minimal effect. Increase down elevator more.
• Have not tried the flaps yet. Slows down enough without them.

Avanti S notes:

• Slight power decrease blip noticed which forced early landing. Will need to look in to that further. 

Flight Log: 7-7-26.

Four flights on the BigHorn 49! Successful buddy link of Spektrum DX8 and RadioMaster TX16S programmed before going to the field. Very easy process with the help of Gemini!

Son had some simulator time in the morning and did very well today on the real thing. About three nice gently left turns. He's learning to smooth out the controls and get his right and left corrections straight in the brain. A little taxing as well. Buddy box with the mono stereo link makes teaching so easy. Programmed to switch SH, which is a dead man switch. Once I let go of switch SH, I have control. I think my son likes it!

Notes: New DR and Expo worked well. Did not try flaps yet. Last flight dead sticked, forcing a down wind landing. Reduced timer to 4:15 from 5:00.

Last flight was with Dad. Enjoyed some simple clock-wise loose formation flights. 

Side View Mirrors.

Got a set of side view mirrors for the Crazy Cart from Amazon. Tagvo brand, never heard of them. Decent quality for $8. The hardest part was finding a mirror that will firmly attached to the small side rails. These use a silicone strap to secure it. Folds and swivels 360 degrees. Hope to improve his spatial awareness. 

OMP BigHorn 49.

First time flying in roughly 6 years today! Maiden flight for the OMP BigHorn 49 PNP. Ordered it about a month ago to get back in the hang of things and to use as a potential trainer for my 10 year old son. The build was straight forward.  CA in the horizontal stabilizer and then CA the three hinges of the rudder.  Horizontal stab was a little crooked but think I was able to correct it. Overall, great construction quality and clean covering job. PNP came with ESC, motor, and servos installed all for about $330. 

Got a new RadioMaster TX16x V2 4 in 1 transmitter too! First experience with open source. Very satisfied with the radio. Large touch screen and ergonomic grip. The gimbals could be a little taller for my pinch grip style. Programming was easier that I thought. Downloaded EdgeTX Companion app and got to programming. With the help of Gemini and the app wizard, I was able to get the programming done. As with any new tech, there is a bit of a learning curve. After a few hours of tinkering with the programming, I felt fairly confident with programming directly on the transmitter as well.

Four Admiral 3S 2200 lipos were purchased. Set timer for 5 minutes but it wasn't working for some reason. 

First flight was very squirrely. Lots of left trim needed. Second flight was better after increasing EXPO but I got a "low RF" warning from the transmitter. Spent a half hour trying to trouble shoot that. Gemini said might be normal glitch with the R88 RadioMaster receiver. Will research more. Third and fourth flight were more dialed in. Did not use flaps at all. Too much throw.  Need to reduce that. All landings successful.  

Brought my son to the field and met up with my dad at noon. Fun times to be back at the field and to spend time with both of them.

Got McDonald's drive through and washed the CRV after.

Update: Used a curve to reduce flap throws and still have down elevator mixed in. Reduced Weight (throw) of aileron, elevator, and rudder in Dual Rate mode. Attached RSSI (strength of signal), receiver battery value, and transmitter battery value widget. Attached personal pic of BigHorn on home screen! Very cool!

TX16S.

Can I Get An Encore?

These two RWB’s are by Pop Race and appear to be from the same casting, just different liveries. Same rims too! Love the quality and the colors really pop. Two exciting additions.